Signatures submitted to allow teacher tenure and early voting on Novemeber ballot

Backers of initiative petitions to eliminate teacher tenure and to allow an early voting period have submitted signatures to get the measure on the November ballot.

Teach Great, the group supporting the teacher proposal, says it turned in more than 275,000 signatures to the Secretary of State's office ahead of Sunday's deadline for groups to submit petitions.

Credit File Photo / KBIA

An attorney for the early voting effort says 300,000 signatures were submitted.

Both measures would amend Missouri's Constitution. The teacher initiative would require school districts to adopt an evaluation system based on "quantifiable student performance data." The early voting proposal would allow a six-week voting period before state and federal elections.

Election officials must now verify the signatures to ensure the proposal qualifies for the ballot.

Missouri’s Secretary of State has now approved more than a dozen petitions related to the taxing of tobacco products. But a lot fewer are likely to end up in circulation. Of those remaining, the aims may be very different.

Public records have shown that Missouri's education commissioner provided advice to a group backing a ballot initiative that would end tenure protections for teachers.

Emails show that Education Commissioner Chris Nicastro met with an advocate for the proposed initiative a year ago and provided suggestions about its wording. Nicastro also reviewed a final version of the initiative before it was filed this March with the secretary of state's office.